What it costs
Cheap hosting for a Telegram bot: from $1.49 a week
In short
Cheap hosting for a Telegram bot means $1.49 a week or $4.99 a month on Netrun: the bot runs around the clock, restarts itself after a crash, and there is no server to configure. The first 3 days are free so you can confirm the bot builds and replies. The only thing cheaper is the free plan, and that is where websites live permanently, not bots.
People start looking for “cheap bot hosting” after their first meeting with cloud pricing, where memory, traffic and requests are billed separately and nobody can tell you the final number in advance. For a bot that answers ten or twenty people a day that is overkill: it needs a small always-on slice of somebody else's computer and a predictable price.
Let us look at what cheap Telegram bot hosting is actually made of, where saving money backfires, and what it costs on Netrun.
Decide what you are actually paying for#
A bot needs three things: a computer that is always on, an internet connection, and a restart after a crash. Everything else is convenience. Cheap bot hosting is the kind where those three things cost a fixed sum and do not turn into separate invoices for traffic, builds and image storage.
Do not save on autostart#
The most common mistake when hunting for a cheap option is to take the cheapest server and leave the bot running by hand from a terminal. After the first reboot or system update the bot goes quiet, and you find out from your users. A platform that brings a crashed process back up saves nerves rather than money — and it costs about the same.
Look at the Netrun price#
Around-the-clock operation is the Pro plan: $1.49 a week, $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year, which works out at roughly $4 a month. That is the whole sum: the server, building the project from your code, restarts after a crash, logs and an HTTPS link for the web part are all inside. There are no extra bills for traffic or builds.
Try it free for 3 days#
Start by uploading the bot on the free plan. It runs there for 3 days — enough to see the code build, the dependencies install, the token get picked up and the bot answer commands. You get an email a day before it stops, and your code and settings stay in place, so paying simply resumes the work.
Check the bot has enough resources#
An ordinary bot on aiogram, python-telegram-bot or Telegraf needs very little. On the free plan a project gets 256 MB of memory, 0.25 of a CPU core and 2 GB of disk; on Pro it is 1 GB of memory, 0.5 of a CPU core and 5 GB. That covers a bot with an SQLite database, images and a couple of background jobs. Heavy work such as video processing will not fit — that needs a dedicated server.
Pay only while the bot is needed#
Weekly billing at $1.49 exists for exactly this: a bot for an event, a bot for the term, a bot you are demoing to a client. Pay for a week, let it run, and switch auto-renewal off in your account with one click. You will not be charged for the months when the bot is idle.
Cheap hosting for a Telegram bot is not the one with the smallest number on the price list, but the one where the price does not come with evenings of setup and surprise invoices. Upload your bot to Netrun: 3 days free, then from $1.49 a week.
Common questions
How much does cheap Telegram bot hosting cost?
On Netrun it is $1.49 a week, $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year. The price covers the server, the build, non-stop operation, restarts after a crash and logs. The first 3 days are free.
Can I host a bot for free forever?
No, and the limit is physical rather than ours: a bot waits for messages itself and is therefore busy around the clock — there is no way to put it to sleep between requests. A website can sleep and wake up when someone opens the link, which is why websites live on the free plan indefinitely. For a bot the free plan gives you 3 days to check things.
Will a cheap plan give the bot enough resources?
An ordinary bot has plenty. On Pro a project gets 1 GB of memory, 0.5 of a CPU core and 5 GB of disk — that is a normal bot with a database, images and background jobs. Only heavy work will not fit: video processing, large models, multi-core computation.
Do I need to configure a server to keep it cheap?
No. Netrun detects the language from your code, installs dependencies, builds the project and starts the bot. There is no Python or Node.js to install, no Dockerfile to write and no autostart to configure — and the price is no higher than a bare server.
What happens if the bot crashes with an error?
The platform restarts it on its own, and the logs with the error text stay in your account. You do not need to log into a server and bring the process back by hand.
Can I move the bot elsewhere if it gets expensive?
Yes. Your code stays yours: it lives on your computer or in a GitHub repository, and the bot needs no platform-specific settings. You can leave at any point without rewriting anything.
Where can I host a Telegram bot for free?
On Netrun you can start a bot for free and try it out: on the free plan it runs for 3 days — no VPS, no server bills and no setup. Upload the code, provide the token from BotFather, and the bot starts in a couple of minutes. To keep the bot running around the clock you need the Pro plan: a bot is busy all the time, so what lives on Netrun for free with no time limit is websites, not bots.
What is different about the Pro plan?
On the Pro plan your project runs around the clock: a website does not sleep and responds instantly, with no pause to wake up, while a bot or a background script keeps running with no 3-day limit. On top of that, Pro gives more memory, CPU and disk space, and a Pro website can use your own domains — as many as you need, each with HTTPS.
What happens to my bot after 3 days on the free plan?
The bot switches off, but your code, settings and secrets stay where they are — we delete nothing. A day before it switches off we send you a warning. Switch to the Pro plan, and the bot starts again from the same place and runs around the clock. A new bot uploaded after that is built too, but it will not start: free time is counted per account, not per project.
How do I add funds to my balance?
You can add funds with a Russian card, via SBP or with cryptocurrency. Prices are shown in dollars, but your card is charged the ruble amount at the current rate — no need to exchange currency yourself. The money lands on your balance, which pays for the plan and slots.